Killiniq Island

Killiniq Island, 269 km², is located off the northern tip of the Labrador Peninsula on the south side of the entrance to Hudson Strait. The provincial boundary passes across the island, so that its eastern portion belongs to Newfoundland and the rest is part of Nunavut. It is only 29 km long and about 13 km wide, with a high, rocky coastline, and is separated from the mainland by the narrow, steep-sided McLelan Strait. The island's name is an Inuit word meaning "drift ice." There is evidence the island has been used since the Pre-Dorset Culture period. Port Burwell (later Killiniq), on the southwest side of the island, was an important arctic harbour from 1884, when a meteorological station was established. Sheltered behind precipitous cliffs, a Moravian mission was set up here (1904-23), followed by a Hudson's Bay Company trading post (1916-39). After an Inuit Co-operative was formed in 1959 the community thrived, but by the late 1970s the population was in decline. In 1978 the remaining Inuit were relocated against their wishes to other communities along Ungava Bay.